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Welcome to Northeastern University’s science and research blog. We call it iNSolution because that’s what our faculty and student researchers are in the business of—finding solutions to societal problems while simultaneously contributing to the fundamental knowledge base of their respective fields.

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Chan used that sup­port to fuel a life­long fas­ci­na­tion in chem­istry and biology. After leaving Cam­bodia as a child and moving to Lowell, MA where he learned early on to avoid neg­a­tive influ­ences in gangs and com­mu­nity vio­lence, Chan joined the North­eastern com­mu­nity hit the ground running.

He worked in three research labs during his time year, inves­ti­gating cir­ca­dian rhythms with Fred Davis and DNA repair with Penny Beuning.

For his three co-​​ops, Chan worked at local biotech firms EMD Sorono and Gen­zyme. The latter offered him a full time posi­tion imme­di­ately after his second co-​​op, which Chan turned down in order to con­tinue pur­suing his edu­ca­tional goals. Today, Chan and his nine fellow Torch Scholars, became the second grad­u­ating class of the program.

Chan is now deter­mined to fur­ther his edu­ca­tion. He has applied to 12 bio­chem­istry master’s pro­grams, with North­eastern at the top of the list. Even­tu­ally, he will also pursue an MBA as he hopes to one day lead a biotech firm of his own.

Chan’s work over the last five years embodies what it means to be a North­eastern researcher — step­ping out of his cir­cum­stances to to pursue the bigger ques­tions that can help improve cir­cum­stances for others.

***

I was curious how Chan found out about the Torch pro­gram. Here’s what he told Torch Pro­gram Director, Jana McCarthy, in a phone con­ver­sa­tion recently:

I saw a letter about Torch informing my [high school] guid­ance coun­selor about what kind of stu­dents Torch is looking for.

I imme­di­ately went to the Torch web­site and read the pro­file of QinRui Pang (Torch Class 1 Grad­uate) and felt her pro­file fit mine. Like QinRui, I immi­grated here, barely spoke any Eng­lish, and faced sim­ilar chal­lenges. I thought maybe I should apply and take a chance.

I asked one of my teachers to nom­i­nate me for the Schol­ar­ship and explained why I would be a good fit for the Pro­gram. I thought maybe this is the right schol­ar­ship for me. After the appli­ca­tion dead­line, I got a letter stating I was chosen as one of the top 50 out of 500 stu­dents in the country who applied.

Inter­view Day was nerve-​​wracking. I had gone to another Schol­ar­ship inter­view and thought it would be sim­ilar but it wasn’t. I was asked to bring a sup­port figure and chose to bring my col­lege coun­selor. We left Lowell at 5:30 in the morning and took the train to Boston. I remember the ques­tions to this day: What is your moti­va­tion to achieve higher edu­ca­tion? Based on my lead­er­ship and involve­ment, how do I bal­ance my schedule?

I think I was chosen as a Torch scholar for my desire to achieve. I am one of those people who knows who I want to be no matter what. I am going to put every­thing I have in me to achieve. I owe my achieve­ment to my par­ents – it’s bigger than me. I have a desire to be a greater individual.

Without the Torch Schol­ar­ship, I wouldn’t have had the oppor­tu­ni­ties. I had a lot of doors open to me at North­eastern because of Torch. I had men­tors who opened the doors to research and fell in love with research. Without meeting my men­tors, I would have been doing some­thing else. I would have been a dif­ferent person without Torch and Northeastern.

Without Torch, I wouldn’t be grad­u­ating with a Bach­e­lors in Science.

Thanks to McCarthy for pro­viding a lot of the con­tent in this whole post, too!

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